


Stelmaria

by NCSP



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, I’m not ready for Endgame and I want fluff, Just Add Kittens, Kittens, M/M, Pets, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, snow leopard - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-16 18:09:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18526852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NCSP/pseuds/NCSP
Summary: Since Loki is moving in with Tony, he decides to bring his pet along.Only problem? Said pet is a snow leopard





	Stelmaria

**Author's Note:**

> Okay guys, @Porcelanowapani and I were talking and I don’t know why snow leopards entered the converesation. This is the result

  

When Tony had come back home that day he hadn’t noticed anything strange.

The meeting Pepper had forced him to attend had drained him of any energy, and the only actions his brain had still allowed had been pouring himself a glass of scotch and collapsing on the sofa.

Or at least try to collapse on the sofa.

The moment he had tried to do so, a loud growl had almost made him jump out of his own skin, and had sent his aged scotch all over the floor.

He hadn’t even tried to understand why the fuck there was a snow leopard on his couch, he had simply yelled Loki’s name.

Because of course that big scary thing had something to do with Loki.

When Loki had entered the room, the expression on his face was entirely relaxed, as if he wasn’t even seeing the huge feline threatening to eat Tony.

“Loki, what the fuck?” Tony had asked, taking a few steps back.

“Hello to you too, Anthony.”

“Don’t play dumb.”

“What’s the problem?”

“What’s the… seriously?”

“Oh, her? She’s Stelmaria.”

“I’m so happy to know the name of what’ll kill me,” Tony had snorted.

“She won’t kill you,” Loki had sighed, and a snap of his fingers had sufficed to make the leopard quiet, “Right, dear?”

The leopard had, honest to God, rolled her eyes.

When Tony had been almost sure no one would have tried to make a dinner out of him, he had required an explanation, and Loki had promptly offered one: Loki had found the monster – Stelmaria – during one of his few visits to Jotunheim, and he hadn’t had the heart to abandon her there. She had been left there, alone, a kitten in the snow, and Loki had saved her from certain death.

Tony could easily see the parallels there.

From then on, Loki and Stelmaria had been one thing.

Loki had personally given her milk, fed her, groomed her, and even taught her how to hunt. In return, the leopard had grown so fond of Loki that he didn’t let anyone approach him.

Loki even explained that when he had started to see Tony he had preferred to leave Stelmaria behind for the moment, but then Tony had asked him to move in, and the visits Loki payed to his overgrown cat weren’t enough for Stelmaria. Without Loki she refused to go hunting, to do anything she was supposed to do for her sake, and she had been wasting away.

Not even Asgard’s pastures with all their preys had looked alluring enough for the snow leopard without her loyal companion.

So Loki had decided to bring her to the penthouse.

The excuse he had used – “I know Midgardians are used to keep animals indoors” – had been really stupid, but Tony would have never asked Loki to renounce to his cat.

Tony had never had pets, but he could recognise the fondness in Loki’s voice.

Problems for him had started from that day on.

Apparently Stelmaria wasn’t only affectionate, she was overprotective.

Any time Tony tried to approach Loki, even only for a kiss, the leopard growled in his direction, making his skin crawl.

During the day that could be considered funny, but at night it was becoming annoying: Stelmaria demanded to sleep on their bed, and that meant that Tony couldn’t do much. Not that Loki rejected him – he would have been more than glad to have their closeness lead to something more – but anytime Tony as much as hinted at removing Loki’s clothes there was a loud growl meant to put him back in his place.

Loki still slept curled up in Tony’s arms as he was used to, but that was the highest level of intimacy dared to reach with the overgrown cat in the room.

But the funniest – or most annoying – thing was that Stelmaria had started following Tony around.

When she wasn’t curled up around Loki, providing a very comfortable backrest for the mage when he wanted to read, she stalked Tony into his lab and just sat there.

She didn’t do much, she only sat there, looking at him, with that unnerving stare only a feline can have; it was like she was studying him, trying to understand whether he was worthy of Loki or not.

The answer was obviously not.

Even when he and Loki were on the couch, kissing after having abandoned any pretence to be watching a movie, Stelmaria just growled from the rug where she had been banished to, and despite Loki’s reassurances that his cat would have never harmed him, Tony just couldn’t go back to what they were doing.

The only solution had been sending her away from some time.

It was clear the leopard was bored in the penthouse, and that since she didn’t have any prey to catch her attention she had decided Tony would have become her favourite one – be damned all the cat toys Tony had bought her to try earn her affection – so Loki had decided to find a solution for that.

Every now and then he went to Jotunheim with Stelmaria, and set her free for some time. The first times he had decided to remain with her to be sure she wouldn’t have been in danger – having never been used to remain outdoors on her own – but when he had realised Stelmaria could watch after herself pretty well he had decided his presence wasn’t required anymore and was free to spend his time with his Anthony.

After leaving the leopard on Jotunheim Loki returned to Midgard, enjoying his time with Anthony and finally moaning loudly under the human’s body, not holding his voice back in fear the man would have stopped once Stelmaria had set her eyes on them.

The first times he had only left her there for a few hours, but when Loki had been sure the leopard loved her time in her natural habitat and she could hold her ground, he had decided to give her more free time.

Hours had become days, and when Loki went to pick her up Stelmaria always looked pleased and spent the next day sleeping against Loki, not even growling in Tony’s direction or chasing him down the halls until he reached the balcony, suited up and flew away.

 

~

 

“Lo, something’s wrong with your cat.”

“Snow leopard.”

“Uh?”

“Stelmaria is a snow leopard, not a cat.”

“Okay. Something’s wrong with your snow leopard who shouldn’t sleep on our bed since she’s not a cat.”

Loki looked up from his book, “Why do you say that?”

“Look at her. You’re leaning against me and she isn’t threatening to eat me.”

“She won’t eat you.”

“Yeah, that’s what Stelmaria’s mom says.”

“I’m not her mom.”

“Sure.”

“Stop it.’

“As my love wishes,” Tony proclaimed, kissing Loki on the lips, “See? Nothing.”

“Aren’t you happy of that?”

“Of course I’m happy of being able to kiss you without your cat threatening my life, but it’s strange.”

“Maybe she’s just getting used to you. Or she was bored and had chosen the thing who looked more like a prey to blow off some steam, and now she’s seeing you differently.”

“I look like a prey?” Tony pointedly asked.

“To her? Yes.”

“Hey!”

“What?”

“I’m not anyone’s prey.”

“You ran from her. That’s what preys do.”

“No, that’s what people who want to survive and don’t end up as cat food do.”

“Whatever you say, darling,” Loki tutted, and Tony was mollified by the endearment.

“I still think something’s wrong with her,” Tony commented, drawing Loki in for a kiss.

 

~

 

Three months later, Tony’s point turned out to be right in the form of three fluffy cubs.

Apparently Stelmaria’s trips had given her something else to think about, and knowing that she was about to become a mom had given her the calm and peace she had lacked when she chased Tony around the penthouse.

Stelmaria had decided to elect the library Tony had set up for Loki as her place to deliver her cubs, and so also Loki had suffered his leopard’s territoriality for once; he was well aware of the fact that Stelmaria would have never accepted anyone around her newborns, and he respected that; when Stelmaria would have liked to show him her cubs, she would have done so.

Who didn’t seem to have grasped the concept was Tony, who took advantage of the first moment when Loki was away to sneak into the library to finally get a closer look of the kittens inhabiting his house.

His utter lack of knowledge of pets had led him to disregard leopard’s habits, considering Stelmaria more like a proud human eagerly waiting to show off her offspring, and so he had ventured into the library.

Jarvis had thought better to warn Loki of his inventor’s ideas, and Loki had requested a live feed of the meeting, so that he could have teleported into the library to save Anthony from certain death at the right moment.

What Loki hadn’t expected was the outcome of that meeting.

“Stel? May I?” Tony asked from the door, and since he didn’t receive a growl in response he ventured inside, “Hey, girl, are you okay? All alone with these three,” he commented, nodding in the direction of the three cubs who were looking at him.

Loki appreciated how Anthony had decided to lower himself on the floor and proceed on all fours, so that he didn’t tower over the laying leopard.

“May I see them? You know, I’ve never had cats, and they look so much like cats. Right size and all of that. I’m sure they’ll grow up and become as threatening as you, but for now they look like house cats. No offence meant, but they are so cute. You know, I’d have always liked to have a pet, but my dad said it was nonsense, so he never let me adopt one when I was a child, and now that these fluffy beans are here it’s coming back. I know it’s stupid, but may I?” he asked, reaching out a hand in the direction of the cubs; it wasn’t a move meant to grab, but to show Stelmaria his intentions.

Loki bewilderedly witnessed to how the leopard didn’t growl in Anthony’s direction.

“I promise I won’t take them away, I only want to pet them a bit,” Tony promised before gently resting his head on top of one of the cub’s head, “Hello, little one. And hello to you too. And to you as well,” he added when the other two approached him, curiosity having the best of him.

From his screen, Loki could only look at them with wide eyes.

“You know, Stel, you did an impressing job with them. They’re so fluffy and… perfect,” Tony commented in awe, and Stelmaria purred in response.

“Now, if you could only stop pretending you hate me since you want to live up to the expectations of being Loki’s cat, it’d be perfect,” he added as one of the cubs perched over his shoulder.

 

   

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus points for who gets where the name comes from


End file.
